Physical mechanisms and parameters for models of microstructure evolution under irradiation in Fe alloys – Part I: Pure Fe

This paper is the first of three that overview the main mechanisms that drive the microstructure evolution in Fe alloys under irradiation. It focuses on pure α-Fe and compiles the parameters that describe quantitatively the mobility and stability of point-defects and especially their clusters, including possible reactions and criteria to decide when they should react. These parameters are the result of several years of calculations and application in microstructure evolution models. They are mainly collected from the literature and the parameter choice tries to reconcile different sets of values that, while being in general qualitatively similar, are often quantitatively not coincident. A few calculation results are presented here for the first time to support specific approximations concerning defect properties or features. Since calculations cannot cover all possible defect configurations, the definition of these parameters often requires educated guesses to fill knowledge gaps. These guesses are here listed and discussed whenever relevant. This is therefore a “hands-on” paper that: (i) collects in a single report most microstructure evolution parameters that are found in the literature for irradiated α-Fe, including a discussion of the most important mechanisms at play based on current knowledge; (ii) selects a ready-to-use set that can be employed in microstructure evolution models, such as those based on object kinetic Monte Carlo (OKMC) methods. This work also identifies parameters that are needed, but not known, hopefully prompting corresponding calculations in the future.This work has received funding from the Euratom research and training programme 2014-2018 under grant agreement No. 755039 (M4F project). This research also contributes to the Joint Programme on Nuclear Materials of the European Energy Research Alliance (EERA-JPNM)

Solute – 〈111〉 interstitial loop interaction in α-Fe: A DFT study

International audienc

Ab initio and Atomic kinetic Monte Carlo modelling of segregation in concentrated FeCrNi alloys

Internal structure of pressurised water reactors are made of austenitic materials. Under irradiation, the microstructure of these concentrated alloys evolves and solute segregation on grain boundaries or irradiation defects such as dislocation loops are observed to take place. In order to model and predict the microstructure evolution, a multiscale modelling approach needs to be developed, which starts at the atomic scale. Atomic Kinetic Monte Carlo (AKMC) modelling is the method we chose to provide an insight on defect mediated diffusion under irradiation. In that approach, we model the concentrated commercial steel as a FeCrNi alloy (γ-Fe70Cr20Ni10). As no reliable empirical potential exists at the moment to reproduce faithfully the phase diagram and the interactions of the elements and point defects, we have adjusted a pair interaction model on large amount of DFT calculations. The point defect properties in the Fe70Cr20Ni10, and more precisely, how their formation energy depends on the local environment will be presented and some AKMC results on thermal non equilibrium segregation and radiation induce segregation will be presented. The effect of Si on the segregation will also be discussed

Simulation of nanostructural evolution under irradiation in Fe-9%CrC alloys: An object kinetic Monte Carlo study of the effect of temperature and dose-rate

This work explores the effects of both temperature and dose-rate on the nanostructural evolution under irradiation of the Fe-9%CrC alloy, model material for high-Cr ferritic/martensitic steels. Starting from an object kinetic Monte Carlo model validated at 563K, we investigate here the accumulation of radiation damage as a function of temperature and dose-rate, attempting to highlight its connection with low-temperature radiation-induced hardening. The results show that the defect cluster mobility becomes high enough to partially counteract the material hardening process only above ∼290°C, while high fluxes are responsible for higher densities of defects, so that an increase of the hardening process with increasing dose-rates may be expected

Kinetic Monte Carlo Simulations of Fecu Alloys

International audienc

Kinetic Monte Carlo Simulations of Fecu Alloys

International audienc

Mean field rate theory and object kinetic Monte Carlo: A comparison of kinetic models

International audienc

Stability and mobility of small vacancy and copper-vacancy clusters in bcc-Fe: An atomistic kinetic Monte Carlo study

International audienc